Blue skies......the end of another busy week. Enjoy the bank holiday weekend.

Me for Slugger O'Toole. I've come out of writing hibernation to write about Reform, Farage and the idiots cheering him on. sluggerotoole.com/2025/05/03/far…

So much political naïveté about the use of terms, or not trying to frame something as a Temporary Problem / Change which will hopefully be improved upon by the end of this year. But it was also the fault of DUP / Donaldson for overselling it as well. The Problem was

A fantastic view over the sunny Mourne Mountains today, great to be out in the wilds with no access to politics or engineering!

I said that Trump couldn't be trusted when individual countries decide to make a bilateral trade (tariff) deals with the US. The UK may learn this lesson the hard way, unless it changes tack soon. Rory Stewart

Stormont’s FinMin John O’Dowd says rates relief for vacant commercial property is clearly having a detrimental impact on town centres & has not ruled out a complete removal of that relief.

I wrote a piece for the guardian about the reaction to my settlers documentary. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Attending the VE DAY 80th Anniversary exhibition this morning in Banbridge.

Newton Emerson do you think this applies in Northern Ireland too? I hope so as it would be great to have infrastructure investment here too.

!! sinnfein.ie/news/governmen…

WASTEWATER Campaign continues! – today’s Newsletter piece. Despite the recent optimism on infrastructure workloads our wastewater crisis is having the same impact on the housing industry as Donald Trump’s tariffs are having on their economy. newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/l…

Mental Health Awareness Week 2025. I'm taking a 5 min break from drainage modelling and technical report writing to appreciate some of the flowers and plants in the garden. Short breaks spent in our natural environment are good for us.

The latest episode of my podcast "Lost Boys" is now live! This week's guest, alongside Scott Galloway is the great Dan Harris (Dan Harris) Timestamps (0:00) Dan Harris Introduction (2:38) Are we at an inflection point? (4:20) What can we do as a society to stop the rise in

As we watch Sunday Politics where is the Money In The Middle at this Mid Term stage? - whether for the Police or for the GPs? Mark Carruthers / BBC The View. We discussed this last night. We want a full story with a Beginning, a Middle and an End with Delivery by 2027. We are

As we discussed on our Space on Saturday I agree with Gordon Lyons MLA that Journalists do not always report the good things that are being done in between, and seem to focus on the big launches and big crashes / elections. So we all welcome his candid approach and availability

Finally! A grown-up view on the serious challenges facing NI Water funding and the wastewater drainage crisis. m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/north…

Interesting piece from Newton Emerson on the wastewater and NI Water funding crisis. JPCampbellBiz 'Can Stormont’s finance minister really not identify even a solid fraction of 0.8% of the budget, so we can start building houses and stop poisoning the water?’ irishnews.com/opinion/newton…

I've just completed the West Highland Way in Scotland and I must say the scenery and landscape was amazing. My Fitbit says that I walked 130 miles over the week. If you would like a challenge in a beautiful part of the world it certainly gives a sense of achievement.